It appears that I am one of the few members in the UK but I was so impressed by the Forno Bravo site that I had to join.
My Grandfather was a baker’s boy in the first half on the 20th century and my brother restored a watermill in Dorset, selling stone-ground flour and baking his own bread. It was my brother who introduced me to bread making and have now been baking for over 10 years. Having tasted wood-fired oven bread in Greece, Italy and France, I have always wanted to have my own wood-fired oven. Now that I have more time on my hands and having found the Forno Bravo plans, I have taken the plunge. Given that my DIY skills are limited to repairs and bodges, I am lucky to have a very DIY-talented friend who wants to help.
I have now purchased the bricks and mortar and selected a site, so it is all systems go.
Having decided on a 36” x 18” build, I am somewhat concerned by the curve of the ellipse that I have drawn for the dome – 36” wide by 9” tall to sit on a single 9” course of upright brick. I can’t see how the dome will be self-supporting. I am now off to take a detailed look at Gromit’s “Smaug: A 36” x 16” build” to see if it gives me any answers.

Welcome daylight, I built my first oven a few years back using forms and refactory cement from shefield refractories, Great stuff. I now live in Costa Rica and decided to build a pompei oven, I have never laid a brick in my life and completed the entire dome in one day (8 hours or less). It's easy believe me, I can't recomend enough a book. "your brick oven" by Russel Jeavons . Only £4.47 on Amazon uk, I purchased all te books and this is without a doubt the only one worth having.

Hi Martin, yes not a lot of UK members but the number is growing all the time.

I'm a little confused from you measurements which design you're building dome or barrel? If it is a dome then you are building a shallow arch but I don't have any doubt about the structural integrity of the shallow dome, although I think you will need some support for each brick course as you build it and you will need to be careful with shaping the bricks to fully lock them, you might also need to support the soldier bricks to make sure they don't fall outwards.

I went for a full, half sphere design which I think simplifies the structural loading issues but you do lose a little useful floor space as a result.

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